Former President Donald Trump responded to efforts by Democrats to ban him from presidential primary ballots in 2024 on Monday, saying the U.S. Constitution protects him.
Trump is facing efforts in several states to remove his name from ballots over his involvement in the January 6, 2021 Capitol protests, which his critics argue amounted to an insurrection against the United States. Attorneys for Trump argue that his statements regarding the 2020 election are protected by the First Amendment.
"At no time do Petitioners argue that President Trump did anything other than engage in either speaking or refusing to speak for their argument that he engaged in the purported insurrection," attorney Geoffrey Blue wrote in a Colorado court filing on Monday.
"The Fourteenth Amendment applies to one who ‘engaged in insurrection or rebellion,’ not one who only ‘instigated’ any action," he added.
Efforts to boot Trump from the ballot have sprung up in Colorado, California, Georgia, Florida and elsewhere, though legal experts say they are likely to fail.
Trump's lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the effort in Colorado on Friday. It cites the state's anti-SLAPP law, which shields people from lawsuits that harass them for behavior protected by the First Amendment.
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Denver District Judge Sarah B. Wallace has scheduled a hearing on the motion for Oct. 13. A hearing on the constitutional issues will come on Oct. 30. It will be the first time an effort to remove Trump's name from the ballot will be argued in open court.
Trump's opponents argue that his candidacy violates the 14th Amendment clause prohibiting candidates who have "engaged in insurrection or rebellion." Civil rights attorney Stephen Yagman, an ex-con attorney who brought the case in California, points to Trump's statements surrounding January 6 and the 2020 election as evidence of supporting such an insurrection.
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"There is only one issue that would need to be litigated potentially and that issue is did Trump engage in insurrection or rebellion," Yagman told the Los Angeles Times earlier this month. "I think the answer to that question for anyone who has eyesight is that he did."
Some legal experts have argued that the 14th Amendment can't be used against Trump. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said there "are good faith arguments in favor of this claim," but he views the theory as "not simply dubious but dangerous."
"The amendment was written to deal with those who engage in an actual rebellion causing hundreds of thousands of deaths," Turley said. "Advocates would extend the reference to ‘insurrection or rebellion’ to include unsupported claims and challenges involving election fraud."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
